I saw tonight's Simpsons intro and went apeshit. Every millisecond was rife with spastic fantastic. I wondered to myself "is this John K?" and then there was your signature spraypainted in neon on the Hindenburg.

you sure weren't kidding about a surprise! (thank god i don't have to sit through a whole night of adult swim) AWESOME JOHN! man, you really know how to keep a secret! THANK YOU!!!!!! Christmas came early this year

I was thrilled to see the Simpsons intro tonight!!!!! I felt old when I thought about how long it's been, but great to see the work introduced to a new audience. (i.e. Nathan and the lazy googling generation) :p

just saw it! man thanks john for showing americans why hand drawn animation is best again!!!! everything... design, movement... it's just so awesome! i can't even say anything that i could compare it to in terms of cartooniness and energy! THANK YOU!!!! P.S. if they merchandise those designs they're gunna rake in some serious moolah, hope you get a piece of it

I have been following your blog for years and never commented, but after just catching tonights simpsons episode by chance, I had to say something. Just like Brian, I went nuts. I knew it was you the very instant your scene started. So fantastic, John. I have been a fan, like many, since I was a wee tot, and it warms the cockles of my heart to see your work on TV again. I can't wait to see more. Keep up the good work! And, the new style you are playing with is a real treat to look at, by the way...

Since Bart isn't fire when he grabs the compress, how did the compress get hot? Why doesn't Homer try to leap off of it when he discovers that it's hot? Is there something I'm not understanding about the clip? I watched a youtube version with the crt going up and down the screen in gray bands. Are you going to post it here in quicktime?

Whoa! I had absolutely no idea about this, since I haven't watched too much TV in a while and have been busy with finishing high school, but this opening completely blew me away. Excellent work, John. Off-model FTW. Hope you can go through the behind-the-scenes of this in future blog posts.

OMG!! That was great and such a pleasure to watch. You have such an evolved and sophisticated style! That was the best thing "The Simpsons" had to offer in over 12 years. I downloaded the episode after seeing your post, and it was such a sight to behold. The animation was out of this world.

OH man - just saw this week's "couch gag" on YouTube - Holy Flirking Shnit! As I've already quipped to a few other believers, if ANYONE could breathe life back into that tired old franchise, it would be John K. God bless!

That was a lot of fun to watch indeed. I love how you took the simple act of using an ancient gag like the whoopie cushion but then adding some brilliant movement and expression to it to make it much funnier.

Did they give as much leeway as you wanted with this or was there any amount of interference from either the Simpsons producers or Fox?

Forgive me for being an armchair critic about this for a moment.John K keeps talking about visual entertainment in animation in his blog, but this "couch gag" Simpsons intro is far from visually entertaining to me. It's saturated with poses and faces and crazy animation, but none of them "work", they all float by, the jokes are drowned out with too many things that move around at once.

Great Stuff. I wonder what the executives at Fox thought. I wonder what 95% of of the people who watched that could have possibly thought was going on. Could have possibly at any point looked at that insane/resplendent spectacle and have any clue how fucking amazing it really was.

I thought it was interesting. I'll be sincere and say I didn't completely love it, but there were some cool things about it. The music was great and some of the poses kind of reminded me of the old Tracey Ullman shorts which were funnier to watch. As a couch gag it was nice I guess but it doesn't totally make a point about the show being more entertaining when more animated.

I hate the super stiff models they use in the show nowadays but this is the opposite, so many movements and wackiness that I find it a little distracting. Also they tend to make Marge more sexy these days, but she also looks dumber in this clip while Lisa and Maggie didn't do much, though I quite liked how you drew Maggie.

And though I actually like this coloring more I still think they look more iconic in their usual yellow aspect.

My point is it could have been a chance to show how the show would work with more fluid animation, but it's more like a crazy reinterpretation, entertaining but so different from the real thing that it's almost an entire different universe.

But there are some really cool drawings and animation there and it was an interesting take.I'm amazed they actually contacted you. I wish they went a little more off model from time to time in the actual show.

When you suggested watching it last night, I had no idea that this was coming in. Nicely done.

I'm still curious about the software used by animators. I understand that you use Harmony, which is a version of Toonboom. You've also talked about how it took some adjustment to get used to how a tablet "interfaces" with humans (over how, say, a textured sheet of animation paper looks/feels). A lot of those tools were in their infancy during the mid-90's and it took about a decade for those tools to mature.

Inks and paints were made by artists. Software is made by programmers. Photoshop took about 8-10 years to mature, and much of this was because photographers found early versions useful enough that they'd use them as they were while asking Adobe to make the software more accessible to them and their needs. Eventually the industry made changes to accommodate them, and today Kodak no longer produces camera film.

Back in the 90's, you suggested that computer animation was the future of independent animation. I'm curious about whether the communication between artists and programmers has improved.

When you were approached to do this, where you contacted by Matt or the other producers? It makes sense for Matt to contact you because you know each other but I always thought he was much more hands-off with the Simpsons since the mid 90's. And I know they had to bring back Al Jean after Mike Scully nearly ruined the show. . The reason I ask is because I know this is a big dead. Besides Banksy, I think your the only other person they outsourced a couch gag from in the last 20 something years.

Great work John. You made it fresh and exciting to watch. I wish The Simpsons would go back and learn from how they use to animate that cartoon. Up until around 2003-04, they had really funny storylines, animation wasn't perfect but it was unique, you could tell still hand drawn in a lot of ways. Today's Simpsons is basically Family Guy. I don't know how they work it out, but it's obvious that the same creative team behind Family Guy is slowly working their way into Simpsons, even with the way they lean on having guest celebrities now in almost every episode, to the gags that somehow remind me of Family Guy. What happened to originality?

Brilliant ! . Had to watch it on YT as this wont be shown in the UK for weeks maybe months but i had big dumb grin on my face while watching it .I thought damn ! John K's pushing it all the way to the edge and back again .Totally inspiring!

Hi John--Lamentably late congratulations on this revolutionary piece. Loving every frame of it.

Everybody who declares the end of 2D should see this. It's amazing what animation can do when the "factory settings" are turned off and the imagination runs wild. It's those tired habits that are dead, dead, DEAD, not the medium.

I hope bigger and better things are coming your way from this treat...

Even though I'd probably like to see some more clear poses here and there I think most of it is understandable and I got most of what was happening the first time.

But I had to rewatch it several times to get the word "D'oh!" coming out of Homer's mouth. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but the fact that this happens at the same time of his brain falling off makes it really hard to read.

Lisa playing the saxo could have been pretty cool in this style, but yeah, you didn't have time for everything.

They are wrong and here is why: You already eschewed every grain of predictability that can possibly be milked out of cliched Simpsons industry and over turned the stale-water of comfort that people nostalgically feel from watching a show for 20 years and have a understandable, yet lazy and combative resistance to something they are unprepared for and cannot understand. That is the mentality that can subconsciously sabotage an artist. My motto- do something great and then completely self destruct before anyone can fucking comprehend what just happened.

If there was less "going on" the same people who were sitting in their filthy tin-shanties, eating hour old damp McDonald-fries off a lifeless bounty paper towel, who turned on FOX early to catch Family Guy, in Shit Town USA would not appreciate it just as much as before. But for "us", it wouldn't be as perfect. It would be a half measure. It wouldn't be your vision without compromise. I assume of course.

I'm also going to assume that you, knowing the demographic of the audience that you were going to be animating for, was looking to put on a subversive and bar raising spectacle. - bill

I saw this at Steve's house and was flabbergasted! I knew it would look good, but I didn't know it would look THAT good. It was the best animation ever made for a TV show. I feel like i watched history being made.

I also saw a YouTube version that lacked vocal and sfx tracks. I wonder what happened there? Anyway, heartfelt congratulations!

Loved it! Like many, I've watched it over and over dozens of times already. It celebrates so much in so little time... my only complaint is that it wasn't longer! Congrats John, and the crew that made it happen!!

The two things that inspired me most to be a cartoonist growing up was the Simpsons and the Ren & Stimpy show. Watching this the other night actually made me tear up. Since then I've watched this short a couple of dozen times, freeze framed all my favorite parts, and doodled your interpretation of my favorite TV family. Easily the best Simpsons couch gag ever.

Fun, fun, fun, fun, that's all you can say about this goofy couch spot. I almost can swear this looks completely hand drawn, but the signature at end looks like it was done with computer.It made think of Family Guy episode "Road To Multiverse" where they did myriad animation styles even Disney. Man, would it have Killed them to have you do fifteen seconds of Brian and Stewie and Peter Griffin?I'd give anything to see 23 minutes of a John K directed and animated version of Simpsons ... totally off the wall and original.